


Do Lizards Purr? An Experiment by Rilla

by imustspeakmyheart



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Fluff, Just the cutest fluff, Multi, only the sweetest for these three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 03:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16442552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imustspeakmyheart/pseuds/imustspeakmyheart
Summary: Suddenly, she heard a noise from the living room. A rising sound, not unlike Arum’s rattles but higher in pitch and faster than usual.--Rilla discovers something about her favourite lizard and she investigates, to adorable result.





	Do Lizards Purr? An Experiment by Rilla

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to the anon who sent me this headcanon on tumblr!! This request took me a while to fill but I just had to write this, hope you enjoy!

When she first heard it, Rilla was in the kitchen sorting out her various jars and pots of herbs. She’d left her boys in the living room area, since Damien was useless at helping her with this and during the Fall season Arum always liked having a warm body wrapped around him. Damien, of course, had been happy to offer himself. 

She was humming to herself as she worked, opening each jar and making sure that the signified herb was really all that was in there, as well as checking whether she needed to refill any of them. It happened quite often now that Arum had different ideas about sorting things than she did, and well, chaos happened, basically. She did her best to combat that problem and it helped that she knew that Arum at least  _ tried  _ to keep up with her sorting methods. .

Suddenly, she heard a noise from the living room. A rising sound, not unlike Arum’s rattles but higher in pitch and faster than usual. Putting her work down she padded over to the living room to check, finding her boys as she left them, lounging on the small couch with Damien settled on Arum’s lap.

One thing was different, though. Arum’s frill was raised somewhat and from her angle she could just see Damien’s face nuzzling the soft skin that lay underneath. The rattling continued and when Rilla walked around the couch to look closer, she grinned. Both of them appeared to have dozed off and the sound was coming from Arum without him seeming to notice.

_ Saints, they’re so adorable,  _ Rilla thought to herself, soft smile on her face. She watched them for a moment longer before leaning over them and gently nudging Damien’s head away from Arum’s frill. He made some vague noises in his sleep and wrinkled his nose in the cutest way, but he didn’t wake up. Neither did Arum; the rattling died down as soon as he wasn’t being nuzzled anymore. One of his arms shifted around Damien, but he remained fast asleep.

Rilla kissed each of them on the forehead and went back to her herbs, carefully filing this new bit of information about her lizard boyfriend away as something to research further. 

.. 

She and Arum were watching Damien train in the little clearing of wood behind her cottage. One of her arms was wrapped around him, idly stroking the back of his shoulders as far as she could reach it. When her fingers ran past the edge of his frill, Rilla remembered what she’d been planning to test out. 

Ever so carefully, as to not alarm her unsuspecting test subject, she nudged her fingers under Arum’s frill and lightly rubbed the softer scales underneath. The effect was immediate. Rattling filled the air, fast and loud, reminding Rilla a little bit of the purring of a cat in the way she could feel it rumble underneath her fingers. 

Lord Arum seemed to not be noticing what was happening, though she did see him slowly close his eyes and imperceptibly lean closer to the touch. It lasted barely a few seconds before he stepped away from her, one of his hands flying up to the back of his neck. 

“What was that?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at her and flicking out his tongue in that way she now knew to interpret as him being flustered. His hand remained protectively on his frill  . 

Rilla glanced at Damien, who was still doing his exercises, seemingly not having noticed anything amiss. That was how he got when he was in the zone, nothing else existed but him and his training. She thought maybe this was a conversation they should all be having together, since it involved the anatomy of someone in their little relationship triad. She also knew, though, that Damien could get a serious dip in his mood if his training rituals got interrupted. 

Arum was still watching her, but he’d moved closer again. As far as she could tell, his expression was inquisitive, not angry.  

“Uh, well. Remember the other day you were over and you fell asleep with Damien on the couch?” After an affirmative rattle from Arum, she continued. “In his sleep Damien was stroking you under your frill and you made that noise, and it was about the cutest thing I’d ever seen in my life. I just had to test it out a bit.” 

She smiled at him fondly, remembering that night. They were both just so adorable, her boys. Arum’s tongue flicked out a few more times, before lowering his arm. 

“I- I didn’t know that that was something...I did. Of course you had to try it again before telling me first.” Arum huffed a laugh. “Can’t have a reliable test if your test subject is in the know.”

He looked away from her, his eyes finding Damien, while his tail swung idly back and forth. When Rilla sidled up to him and took one of his hands he didn’t move away again, so she thought he was probably just processing the new information. He squeezed her fingers, watching Damien finish his last set of exercises. 

“I’ll never do it again if it bothers you. It doesn’t hurt when you’re touched there, I hope?” Arum seemed to be taking it pretty well, but still some concern slipped into her voice when she asked the question. If her curious exploits had actually hurt him, she’d be pretty upset about it. 

Arum shook his his head, another hand rising to pet Rilla’s hair. “No, Amaryllis. It’s just… Slightly embarrassing, I won’t lie. But it doesn’t hurt and it isn’t entirely unpleasant either. Rather nice actually. Sensitive skin and all that.” He spoke softly, looking back at Rilla and smiling. 

Rilla beamed at him, then added slyly, “That’s good, because it’s absolutely adorable and I’ll need to show Damien at least once.”

“Show me what at least once?” Damien interjected at the most opportune moment, having strolled up to them with his wooden practise sword swung casually over his shoulder and a layer of sweat shining on his forehead. For a second Arum had actually forgotten that Damien was there and was overcome with the knowledge that if Rilla wasn’t going to let him live this down, then certainly Damien wouldn’t. 

“Nothing,” Arum said at the same time that Rilla said, “Oh, something alright.”

Rilla’s grin grew tenfold and she held fast to Arum’s hand when she felt him pull.

“Come on Arum, let me show him, it’s cute!” Between Rilla’s enthusiasm and Damien’s overwhelmed confusion, Arum really stood no chance. He deflated, narrowing his eyes and flicking out his tongue annoyedly. Then for good measure he rolled his eyes before crouching down and letting Rilla’s fingers slip out from his. 

“Fine.” He said, a petulant rattle sounding from his throat that stood in stark contrast to the high pitched sound he produced when Rilla tickled the underside of his frill immediately after he’d spoken. No mercy, that woman. 

Damien observed the whole display with curiosity. Arum’s tail rustled the grass, his eyes were downcast and Rilla was so right, it was  _ adorable.  _ Most of all because he seemed so flustered about the whole thing. 

He let out a surprised laugh and stepped closer. Arum narrowed his eyes at him when their eyes met, but he didn’t move away when careful fingers found their way under his frill to rub there.  

“It sounds like high pitched purring, how cute.”

“It does not!”

“You know what I must do now, Arum.”

“You are  _ not  _ going to compose an ode about this. Or a sonnet. Or a lyrical ballad.”

“When inspiration strikes, it strikes, my love.”

Rilla would say her experiment was a roaring success, the way their laughter mingled with Arum’s flustered rattles to create the most lovely sound for all the joy it signified. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading <3
> 
> I still take Second Citadel requests even though it'll take me 400 years to write any of them, but if you have anything you'd like to see in the future send it my way! I might make it a series, who knows. 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at imustspeakmyheart


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